Apparently I suck at estimating word lengths

My first professional sale was a 1500 word short story to an anthology about evil elves. It had a beginning, middle, end, rising action, climax, denouement and baby bunny rabbits along with a forest elf who systematically hunts down, kills, eats and uses the skin of the people he hurt to make the clothes he was going to need if he wasn’t going to fit into his forest any more.

I was going to write a simple ghost story, marrying Halloween to Obon with a touch of phantom hitchhiker. We found the anthology call on the 27th and I finished the story today. 26k. I created Ren to do one thing, be dead. 1500 words into it, tears were streaming down my face.

I hope other people like it. Red Lettering is going to be cleaned up tonight and sent off tomorrow. Wish me luck!